Islanders rally against Titan

The Charlottetown Islanders snatched victory from the jaws of defeat on Wednesday night in Bathurst, N.B.

Hunter Drew scored his third goal of the season 56 seconds into overtime as the Islanders rallied to edge the Acadie-Bathurst Titan 3-2 in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action.

The Islanders had been trailing most of the game until Sullivan Sparkes scored his eighth goal of the season with a little more than eight minutes to go in the third period to tie the game. Nikita Alexandrov and Sam King drew the assists.

The Titan drew first blood in the game as Samuel L’Italien scored his 11th goal of the season on the power play at 9:34 of the first period.

The Islanders tied it at 1-1 on Gregor MacLeod’s eighth goal of the season, on the power play, at 14:01 of the first period. Olivier Desjardins and Samuel Meisenheimer drew the assists. The Titan regained the lead on Liam Murphy’s sixth of the campaign at 15:38 to give the Titan a 2-1 lead after one period of play.

That was it for the scoring until Sparkes sent the game into overtime. Charlottetown outshot the Titan 30-23. Matthew Welsh picked up the win in goal for the Islanders while Reilly Pickard took the loss for the Titan. Summerside Western Capital TJ Shea saw ice time in the game. He finished with two shots on goal, was 0-for-2 in the face off circle and had two hits. On the power play, Charlottetown was 1-for-4 while the Titan were 1-for-2. Charlottetown improves to 19-11-1-0 for 39 points in the Maritimes Division while the first-place Titan drop to 18-85-2 for 43 points.

The Islanders are back in action on Friday night when they host the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles. Game time is 7 p.m. at Eastlink Centre.